Science Detectives

How do you get thirty-six 8-11yr olds excited about science in museums? Give them a ‘crime scene’ and skills to solve the crime.

Category: General

Posted by: Nicola

Early one Saturday morning in August, we welcomed our budding scientist for a full day of forensic fun. The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Polar Museum, the Sedgwick Museum, the Museum of Zoology and the Botanic Gardens all ran sessions that honed the children’s scientific skills in preparation for a forensic investigation at the Botanic Gardens in the afternoon.

Our aims were to show how different branches of science overlap, get children into our museums and most of all to make science fun.

The morning was packed with workshops on:

Things which are very small: looking at botanic samples using historic and modern microscopes

Things that are very big: mapping from lots of different angles

Things that you can’t see: acids and alkalis

Plaster casting footprints

The similarities of birds and dinosaurs

Footprint silhouettes

Looking at four different mammal skeletons

Game to match the bird to its footprint

After spending the morning at the Zoology museum, we walked to the Botanic Gardens for a quick lunch before heading in to the gardens to solve the mystery who poisoned Ali the Algae researcher after he announced his incredible new research in the field of botany and energy.

Using their newfound skills including pollen and footprint identification, satellite mapping and soil PH testing our young scientists did a great job of solving the mystery.

Did we meet out aims? All the staff involved worked hard to come up with engaging activities that used objects from across our collections. Feedback from the day told us that at least some of our young scientists had not been in to any of the museums before.

Did we make science fun? Feedback from parents and children was overwhelmingly positive and one of our 9yr olds said “..it made me want to be a scientist’

Did we spend too much time late on Friday night finishing resources? Well yes, but it will be easier next time… right?

Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to the North-West Passage has often been in the news ever since he left England on the 19th May, 1845 never to return. Successive searches throughout the 19th century eventually found artefacts and human remains. But it was not until 2014 the wreck of Franklin’s ship, HMS Erebus was found and two years later the wreck of HMS Terror. Now the extraordinary story of HMS Erebus is receiving new publicity thanks to the publication of Michael Palin’s new book – ‘Erebus : the story of a ship’. Whilst the earliest searches did not find any traces of Franklin and his crew, one of them, led by Captain Kellett did find a superb mammoth tusk, which is now part of the Sedgwick Museum’s Ice Age display.

Publications

'Tools of the Trade'Available to purchase in the Sedgwick Museum shop

Agostino Scilla's'Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense'English translation available to download.

Friends of the Sedgwick Museum prizewinners give us their thoughts on their time at the Museum in 2016Click here to readWork Experience at the Sedgwick - read about our latest student to visit us for two weeks and experience life in a Museum.